APPA Director Alan Richardson will fight
toe-to-toe with well-heeled
adversaries. If he were a boxer, his name might be Alan "The Right" Richardson.
The executive director of the American Public Power Association (APPA) always toes the canvas, swinging for equity for his 1,750 members, shadowing its "heavyweight" adversaries, investor-owned electric utilities (IOUs).
The Michigan Public Service Commission (PSC) has approved a request for certification of plans by CMS Generation Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of CMS Energy Co., to acquire an interest in an electric power supplier in Australia, as part of that country's privatization program.
According to CMS Generation, the project will remain a "totally separate entity" from the corporate parent and its principal subsidiary, Consumers Power Co.
The Michigan Public Service Commission (PSC) has directed Consumers Power Co. to scale back any residential rate subsidies. The order appeared during a review of a proposed settlement in a series of applications to increase rates, revise depreciation methods, and offer discounts to industrial customers.
The PSC added, however, that the company should not try to eliminate the entire subsidy in a single step.
CMS Generation Co., a unit of CMS Energy Corp., has begun operating the 35-Mw, waste-wood-fueled, independent Genesee Power Station near Flint, MI. CMS Generation will sell the electricity to Consumers Power Co. under a long-term contract. Half the plant is owned by CMS, half by Black & Veatch Development Corp. and Genesee Power Co.
Another unit of CMS Energy, CMS Gas and Electric Marketing, has signed an agreement with Marine Coal Sales Co. of Indianapolis, IN, to market electricity, coal, and natural gas in the east central United States.
Michigan Attorney General Frank J. Kelley has filed a request to intervene in an action pending before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The action concerns the NRC's failure to address a request by Consumers Power Co. to unload spent, high-level nuclear fuel from a defective cask at the Palisades nuclear plant.
Kelley is filing in support of a petition by two consumer groups that want the NRC to prevent Consumers from using dry-cask storage because the utility has violated its license to operate that system.
Ann R. Chamberlain will manage rates and regulations, and plan and procure gas supplies in her new v.p. position with Virginia Natural Gas, Inc. She steps up from assistant v.p.
Boston Pacific Co., Inc. has added John T. Chang to the company's international power project development practice. He comes from Iroquois Gas Transmission System. Jonathan d'E. Coony was promoted to consultant and will continue work on financial evaluation of power projects in Indonesia, Pakistan, and other countries.
It comes as no surprise that regulated investor-owned utilities (IOUs) hold divergent views on the restructuring of the electric industry. Size, generation cost, transmission access, customer loyalty, and the friendliness of state regulators all factor into their individual visions of restructuring.
jü( )l, n: A unit of energy measurement equal to a watt-second.
According to a Newton-Evans Research Co. survey of 60 information system managers from gas, electric, and water utilities in more than 12 countries:
s About 45 percent of utilities surveyed plan to replace current computer systems through 1997.
s IOUs tend to spend more for information technology than their publicly operated peers: close to 3 percent of revenues.
Michael W. Peters succeeds Raymond G. Kuhl as executive v.p. and g.m. at the new Michigan Electric Cooperative Association. Kuhl retired January 30. Peters was general counsel at the Association of Illinois Electric Cooperatives. MECA provides services to 14 co-ops.
MDU Resources Group, Inc. has elected Thomas S. Everist, a South Dakota businessman, to its board of directors.
Peter J. O'Shea, Jr. was named senior v.p. and general counsel at Consolidated Edison. O'Shea comes from ITT Corp., where he served as v.p.
The merger voltage (I) is rising on the electric grid, but it remains to be seen which will win out: current (E) policy or resistance (R) to it.